Chapter 9
Liz
Icouldn’t get away from Nate’s house fast enough.
I’d spent an uncomfortable night on his couch and felt like absolute shit.
When I woke up, I didn’t hear anyone else in the house, so I got dressed and figured I would sneak out the front door without waking Nate.
I craved the solitude of work, just me, my truck, and a whole lot of dirt.
To walk out the front door to the sneering face of a tall, willowy brunette had been an unwelcome surprise. Seeing the tension in Nate’s jaw told me exactly what I had walked into.
His ex was perfectly put together where as I looked about as well as one could hope given that I’d had four hours of sleep on a couch after an eighteen-hour workday.
I’d ignored her dig and turned to Nate. He’d been shirtless and barefoot, wearing only a loose-fitting pair of gray sweatpants.
Even straight out of bed, he looked sexy as hell.
Hard lean muscles from top to bottom, with a tattoo of Paisley’s name over one developed pec.
I’d muttered a quick thank you and escaped, only by promising to stay another night at his place.
After I parked my car at work, I texted my landlord to ask about the broken window.
Cops would have been there during the night, but I didn’t want to have anyone else climbing through my window.
Just the idea of going back to my condo gave me the chills.
When I had done the walk-through the night before, nothing had been out of place aside from the broken window, yet it had felt strange.
Tainted somehow. A slight breeze had been ruffling my curtains, still the pink ones Natalie had put up when she had lived there.
Why would anyone want to break in?
I didn’t have anything worth stealing aside from a few electronics and they were all sitting right where I’d left them.
This had to be tied to the note. The fact that Nate said the car in my spot had been silver cemented that fact in my mind.
So, there was no way the note had been a prank.
Now it was down to two suspects: my ex or a coworker.
I hadn’t seen the silver car in the parking lot at work recently, but since the job site was in the middle of nowhere, a lot of people carpooled, so that didn’t tell me anything.
The note had been about my job, it had to be someone there.
The job I loved, and my cozy little condo, didn’t feel like my safe spaces anymore. On top of figuring this out, I’d have to talk to Nate tonight.
About everything.
******
I made it through the workday on autopilot. Suspicious of everyone and figuring out nothing. Every glance looked malicious when that was what I was expecting to see. I was too tired to solve mysteries today. When I arrived at Nate’s place, Paisley was waiting for me at the front door.
“Dad told me you were coming to stay again. Can we play together after dinner? I have puzzles and dolls, and I’m learning to play checkers but I’m not that good yet.”
My lip quirked up, tired or not, it felt good to have someone excited to see me at the end of the day. “I’d love to play; you can pick the game.”
She beamed.
“Dinner time first, Sunshine.” Nate appeared at the door to the kitchen.
He was dressed the same he would for the gym, a black long-sleeve and shorts, but with a dish towel thrown over one shoulder and his sleeves pulled up to his elbows.
He was power and muscle and apparently also a domestic god.
Paisley and I followed him to the table.
The man could cook. Like it wasn’t hard enough to keep my emotional distance, I stepped into the kitchen to find dinner on the table. Barbequed steaks, salad, and seasoned rice. Nothing gourmet, just hearty food cooked well. After a long day on too little sleep, it was heaven on a fork.
Paisley entertained us with stories of the ins and outs of the first grade while we ate.
Nate’s eyes danced with amusement as he gave his daughter his full attention.
Despite the absolute dumpster fire that was my life, I couldn’t keep a smile from my face.
As much as the child’s mother hadn’t given me the best impression, I could admit that she and Nate had done a great job raising this energetic little girl.
Their actions had seemed juvenile and ridiculous when I had seen them, but hell, I had run out of a session with Nate rather than talking to him like a big girl.
Hypocritical of me to judge them when there had been years of deep feelings.
Maybe I was too quick to assume he was too young for me. Maybe the fact that he came with a little girl attached wasn’t a bad thing either. When we talked tonight, maybe I would even tell him the truth.
After dinner, Paisley and I worked together on the dishes before the three of us settled into a round-robin tournament of checkers. Nate won. He gave the pieces little voices that talked to Paisley as we played. There was something so sexy about seeing the attentive dad side of him.
“Dad, can Liz sleep in my room?” My lips turned down, and it took more willpower than I expected not to cry. The world was an ugly place, but this sweet kid wanted me around.
“I don’t think so, Sunshine, you need a good night’s sleep.”
He called her Sunshine. So fucking cute.
“But where is she going to sleep then?” There was a whine in her voice.
It was adorable that she wanted me as her friend, but I had unfinished business with her dad.
Watching him move around the kitchen just as well as he moved around an MMA ring left me with questions about how he would move in the bedroom.
“She’s going to sleep on the couch.”
Paisley made a face. “Kevin sleeps on the couch at Mom’s house all the time. I don’t know why he likes it. That couch is lumpy.”
Ooh, Paisley spilling the tea.
Nate’s eyebrows went up, but he very maturely didn’t push for details on his ex’s marriage.
When seven o’clock hit, Nate took Paisley upstairs to bed, and I had a shower.
Then I waited in the living room for him to come back.
My head was a mess. I didn’t know which way was up.
One thing I did know was when panic—or lust—hit, everything in me pointed toward Nate.
My few remaining functioning brain cells told me it was a bad idea.
He was too young. We were both recently out of big relationships.
He had a kid. Each of those objections had slowly faded and blown away when I needed him, and he was there.
Age and circumstances be damned, he was one hell of a good man, and I wanted him.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs and my heart lodged high in my throat. No more distractions. No more delays. It was time for real talk. He stood at the entrance to the living room and leaned against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest.
I turned on the couch to face him. “Did Paisley go to bed?” I forced out the words around a lump in my throat.
He nodded and pushed himself off the wall, stalking toward where I was perched on the edge of a couch cushion.
He stopped in front of me, and I looked up to meet his eyes.
Studying them and finding nothing but good things staring back at me.
No judgement. No hate. Just concern and heat.
I stood. Not that it put me anywhere near eye to eye with his over six-foot frame, but it was better than being eye level with his dick.
“We’re overdue for a conversation about a few things, starting with why you ran out of my gym the other day. ”
I’d kept everything to do with this stalker situation to myself until last night, and I was done.
Done with lies, done with the whole cloak-and-dagger routine, done with dealing with things on my own when I had people who were willing to help.
Most of all, I was done with denying how I felt about Nate.
I’d tell him the truth and let the consequences fall where they may.
“You want to know why I ran out of that place like I was on fire? Because I was.”
His eyebrows came down over his eyes, almost hiding the thick scar that cut through one of them.
“I spent almost an hour in that gym with your hands on me, with me straddling you, basically dry humping on the fucking floor, and my skin was on fire. I couldn’t stand it.
” I looked away knowing my face must be well past a girlish blush and into tomato red territory.
When I looked back, his eyes had darkened.
“My life is a disaster right now. I can’t even feel safe in my own home.
I have no idea when or if someone is going to try to do God knows what to me and the only thing I can think about is you.
” I gave his chest a little shove which didn’t budge him an inch.
I could feel how fast he was breathing under my palm.
“I’m forty goddamned years old, and I have a fucking high school crush on you.
When I see you, my stomach does that annoying butterfly thing, and I can’t concentrate.
Blood rushes to places I don’t want it to go.
” I huffed out a breath. “I’m twelve years older than you. I don’t expect you feel the same—”
“But I do.” His calloused hands landed on either side of my face, and he pulled my lips to his.